Nov
08

Sprint 8: HTML5 improvements

We continue to adjust and improve the HTML5 version of our application, including adding social tools to the various articles that we have there. You can try out the HTML5 version of FanFeedr here, if you have an HTML5 compliant browser like Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. That is the primary output of this sprint, along with the usual assortment of bug fixes and speed improvements.

We have also sorted out a persistent bug in our Pick’Em game so that results and badges are rendered almost instantaneously. Thanks for your patience there.

Have a great week, FanFeedr

Oct
27

Sprint 7 and Sprint 8

Yes, we are behind with our product releases, and it is because the writer of this blog has been focused on the revenue-generating aspects of the business to the detriment of clear communication about product releases and the hard work of our engineers. Situation remedied today, as . . .

Sprint 7

Bugs

  • Fixed the way ties are displayed for soccer/European football results
  • Changed “soccer” to “football” wherever we could to least offend your sensibilities
  • Posting comments to Twitter on the website was not working, but it is fixed now

Sprint 8

Bugs

  • Deleted preseason NBA games so that they didn’t show up as betting opportunities
  • Fixed team records to show record for Champions League vs. national league, in context.
  • Slate of fixes for the Chrome application
  • Our aggregation of Tweets fell down, go boom, so that is back and functional
  • Fixed caching on team records, which made them seem slightly out-of-date
  • Fixed schedules for soccer/European football teams. Check out FC Barcelona’s schedule, for example.
  • Comment notification emails now linking to the right place.

As always, thank you for supporting us, and let us know what we can do to make your experience better by using the big red “Feedback” tab on the left-hand side of every web page at FanFeedr.

Thanks, FanFeedr

Sep
29

New release: Mobile upgrades and improvements to football/soccer

Mobile goodness

All of our mobile apps are up-to-date and chock full of goodness.

iPad FanFeedr
  • New FanFeedr release is live today
  • It gets rid of the adult warning, which is a relief (Apple made us put that on because we linked to Yahoo, Yahoo links to porn. They seem to have forgotten about our linking to Yahoo.)
  • It makes the login much less of a PitA. If you have already logged in, it just dumps you into your FanFeed
  • “Search” has been replaced with “Add teams” which is a much better conveyance (or affordance, to use the user experience term) for what is done with that button
  • iOS4 features
  • Icons look fantastic on the iPhone 4
  • Introduced background multitasking. If you exit the app, and come back, there is no reload. You have to have iOS4 to see this.
  • Download it here.
iPhone FanFeedr
  • Same as iPad, with the following goodness . . .
  • iOS4 features
  • Icons look fantastic on the iPhone 4
  • Introduced background multitasking. If you exit the app, and come back, there is no reload. You have to have iOS4 to see this.
  • Download it here.
Android FanFeedr
  • Live in the Android Marketplace, you have to search for it under “FanFeedr”.
  • It makes the login much less of a PitA. If you have already logged in, it just dumps you into your FanFeed
  • “Search” has been replaced with “Add teams” which is a much better conveyance (or affordance, to use the user experience term) for what is done with that button
  • Will send out download link when it is live
iPad Redskins
Android Redskins
  • Live in the Android Marketplace, you have to search for it under “Redskins Feedr”
  • Our first ever release of this application for the Redskins
  • All of the same features as the iPad Fanfeedr
  • We had a slate of improvements to our European football features, including adding players and rosters so that you can become a fan of your favorite players, like Leo Messi, Wayne Rooney, and Didier Drogba.

Football/Soccer

We had a slate of improvements to our European football features, including adding players and rosters so that you can become a fan of your favorite players, like Leo Messi, Wayne Rooney, and Didier Drogba.

Thanks, FanFeedr

Sep
14

New features, new bug fixes: Sprint 5

Over the last two weeks, we have had a slate of good news:

Additionally, the developers have worked hard (and over weekends) to improve the user experience on FanFeedr, Facebook and Twitter for you, our users.

Improvements to FanFeedr.com

  • The Associated Press accidentally cut off our photo feed, and that has been restored. Top photos on the site in the last hour are here.
  • European football and US football scores, schedules and rosters have been updated
  • We made it easier to login and sign-up for the site by creating a new first-time user experience
  • We added navigation to the sports in the search bar at the top of every page to make it easier to go to scores, photos and the Hot News

On our Facebook Pick’Em application

  • We made it easier and clearer to invite friends to the game
  • Fixed some bugs when we published the results of scores
  • Added in options with our partner, gWallet, to allow you to get points for free

As always, we appreciate your business, and your feedback, and please let us know if you are missing anything important in the FanFeedr Feedback area.

Thanks, FanFeedr

Aug
30

New toys for the end of summer | Sprint 4 (old R70)

A bunch of fixes and improvements . . .

iPad/iPhone users

Facebook Pick’Em game

  • First, do you know that we have a killer Facebook Pick’Em game? You can predict the outcome of English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A games, directly on Facebook, with your friends.
  • We are using Facebook Credits directly, and you don’t have to go hunting for currency to play the game
  • We added live scores to the game, so you can check your scores as the games take place

First-time user experience

  • We deleted the welcome pop-up screen, because many of you complained about it. She’sa gone.

There were other bug fixes. We hope that you are enjoying your Summer, and remember, if you like the website, you can also get FanFeedr for your iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Thanks, FanFeedr

Aug
20

European Football Pick’Em directly on Facebook

Folks,

We have been working on this for most of the summer, so we are quite excited about the opportunity around being able to play Pick’Em directly on Facebook. We are launching with European soccer, so that you can predict the outcomes of games against your friends or everyone on Facebook, all for the opportunity to be the commissioner for the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga.

We simplified the interface, and we use Facebook Credits directly to make it easier for you to continue playing the game if your luck leaves you for a short bit.

We hope you enjoy playing and look forward to your feedback about the game, as we will roll out improvements every week.

Please share it with your friends as well.

Remember, you can pick your favorite Premiership, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A teams right here, and you can compete against your friends on Facebook.

Thanks, FanFeedr

Aug
12

Why users are more engaged on our iPad application compared to our web site

The numbers are pretty startling: our website visitors come for 1m 34s, and our iPad users come for just over 14m 20s each time they come to FanFeedr. I was recently asked why this was the case, and the usual answers came out:

  1. We offer a personalized service, so viewing it on a personal device should increase the time spent per session
  2. Using Facebook and Twitter, which we require for login, is easier on an iPad than on a work computer (our peak usage is around 3p ET (GMT -5).) Some workplaces restrict access to the social networks
  3. The iPad application is an easier way to consume information than our web application

That explains part of the 10-fold increase in time per session, but it doesn’t seem like enough.

Perhaps it was timing?

  1. We launched the FanFeedr iPad application on April 3rd, the day that the device launched.
  2. We were a featured application for the first week in the iTunes app store
  3. The 2010 World Cup began two months later, right after the 3G version of the device debuted in the United States.

That still doesn’t seem to full account for the difference.

The single answer that makes the most sense is that the iPad interface can’t multitask, and that single-threaded application behavior forces users to focus solely on our application.

Which sort of underscores that multitasking doesn’t make you smarter, and greatly impedes time spent on web sites, to boot.

Jun
11

R66: Getty Images and World Cup Soccer

We have a lot in this week’s release.

World Cup Soccer

We also have a pretty sweet World Cup Challenge game on Facebook. Pick your favorite teams and compete with your friends in the Tournament.

Getty Images

  • We have a partnership to Getty Images for their amazing sports photos, which are now live on the site.
  • Here is a great example of Pau Gasol
  • We are also adding some functionality if you would like to show Getty Images on your site. We will let you know when that is available.

Thanks, as always, FanFeedr

May
27

R64: Tracking NBA Free-Agents and European Football Transfers

We heard your request, especially from Knicks’ followers: we want to be able to track all of the free-agent/football transfer news on a per-team basis. Problem solved.
We have a new filter on each team and player page that gives you just that: all team changes, all the time. Some examples . . .

NBA free-agent news

Premier League Football transfer news

La Liga Football transfer news

One last new feature: we have added the ability to customize your feed on the team pages so that you can see just the information that is important to you. When you go to a team or player page, you can turn on some, all or none of the Filters in the left column.

Additionally, some bug fixes:

  • Twitter suppression on the home page is permanent. If you select it, it will stick even if you leave and come back.
  • Added a link to “Hot Pick’Em games” in the right column of the home page to all of the Pick’Em games.
  • Improved the frequency and type of stories that we publish to our popular Facebook team pages, like the LA Angels or New York Yankees.

Another great week of work by our talented engineering team.

Thanks, FanFeedr

May
21

R63: Pick’Em and our user experience

This is a pretty straightforward release: Pick’Em has been added to the FanFeedr home page so that you don’t have to search for it.

You can pick games directly on the front of FanFeedr.com so that you don’t have to go to the Pick’Em homepage.

Also, we added a new World Cup news section on Facebook.

Let us know if we can provide you with other features right here.

Thanks, as always, FanFeedr